This invention relates to reed instruments of the so-called "beating type", including woodwinds, and in particular, to reed testing and selecting devices for such instruments.
The selection of musical reeds, made of natural material such as cane, is an art form requiring substantial experience and judgement. Natural materials are not uniform; even the best natural materials have significant and unpredictable variations in stiffness and density. Therefore, geometrical duplication of reeds does not produce musical identical reeds. In fact, the tonal differences between geometrically identical reeds can be substantial. Therefore, using known devices to physically reproduce a reed having good tonal qualities cannot be relied upon to produce musically equivalent pieces.